Kholberg - Developmental Area Flashcards
aim
to investigate developmental moral reasoning throughout adolescence and early adulthood. A secondary aim was to assess the extent to which these changed hold true in a range of cultural contexts
backround
- Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is based on Jean Piagets stages of cognitive development
- Kohlberg proposes three levels of moral reasoning: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional morality, each level consists of two separate stages
sample/participants
75 boys from Chicago were followed for 12 years at 3-year intervals
at the start the boys were ages 10-16 and they (58) were followed to ages 22-28
boys in great britain, canada, taiwan, mexico and turkey were also studied
method
longitudinal research using self-report
procedure
- conventional (conformist) level: There is an increased understanding of others intentions, a decrease in egocentrism and the desire to win praise from others. Stage 3 is often called the good girl/good boy stage - when children obey rules to gain praise. In stage 4 the focus is on the idea that rules should be obeyed because social order and laws are very important
- Post-conventional (autonomous) level: In stage 5 moral actions are those that express the will of the majority (democracy) and maximise social welfare. Finally stage 6 is called universal ethical principles as it is marked by a set of self-defined moral principles based on ideas of universal justice and respect for human rights.
- Measuring moral reasoning: the boys were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas, such as Heinz’s wife was dying from a type of cancer. Doctors said a new drug might save her, the drug had been discovered by a local chemist and Heinz tried to buy some, but the chemist was chagrin 10x the money it cost to make the new drug and Heinz could only raise half the money. He explained to the chemist that his wife was dying and asked if he could have the drug cheaper or pay the rest of the money later. The chemist refused, saying that he had discovered the drug and was going to make money from it. The husband was desperate to save his wife, so later that night he broke into the chemists and stole the drug.
- the boys were asked questions such as:
- Should Heinz have stolen the drug?
- Would it change anything if Heinz did not love his wife?
- What if the person dying was a stranger, would it make any difference?
- Should the police arrest the chemist for murder if the woman died?
results
Based on their responses to moral dilemmas moral development was divided into three broad levels of morality each of which contains two stages. Each stage is a distinct moral philosophy. There were differences in pace but not sequence of development across nationally, social class and religion
conclusions
There is a universal sequence of stages to moral development. Children in the same stage of moral development tend to reason in the same way
The strengths and weaknesses of different types of data
- qualitative data:
- positive: respondents to interviews could give full answers to questions rather than just select from a list of alternatives
- negative: hard to draw conclusion from what they have exactly said
ethical considerations
- no deception
- no distress
- no psychological, mental or physical harm
- participants were able to withdraw but may not have known
- participants were not pressured into taking part
The strengths and weaknesses of the different research methods and techniques
- longitudinal research desgin using self report
- negative: takes a lot of time
validity
- low ecological validity (participants were asked about hypothetical moral dilemmas instead of being exposed to real ones)
- longitudinal design: had good validity as it eliminates the extraneous variable of individual differences between participants at different ages
reliability
- easy to replicate
- good external validity
sampling bias
- all boys (androcentric)
- all america - was an even distribution of it
ethnocentric
- all participants were american boys - ethnocentric
- sample was taken from a range of nationalities which is more diverse so could argue not ethnocentric
